The present invention relates to the testing of telecommunications lines and, more particularly, to a method of testing telecommunications lines to identify wideband signal inhibitors, which will enable a telecommunications provider to readily determine if a given telecommunications line will support wideband transmission technologies without reliance on line records residing on Operational Support Systems (OSS), design records or geographical databases.
As the use of wideband transmission technologies increases, there has become an increasing need to be able to identify if specific portions of existing telecommunications networks are capable of supporting such wideband transmission technologies. Since a significant portion of existing telecommunications networks rely on copper cable technologies, and since the upgrade of such copper cable networks has been rather slow and costly, a need has arisen to utilize existing copper cables as conduits for wideband telecommunications technologies. However, since the overwhelming majority of copper cable telecommunications networks was designed and installed to support only voice transmission technologies, many networks include components that enhance voice communications but inhibit wideband transmissions.
One attempt to estimate wideband transmission performance over an existing voice telecommunication network is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,713, which issued to Lechleider et al. on Jul. 18, 2000. While the Lechleider et al. patent does offer one means by which a telecommunication loop""s wideband performance characteristics can be estimated, it does not attempt to identify the specific type and number of wideband inhibitors present in a particular loop circuit. Often times it would be desirable to not only be in a position to predict wideband performance but it would also be desirable to identify the type and number of potential wideband inhibitors so that a determination can be made as to whether a particular loop circuit can be readily modified to support wideband transmission technologies or whether the particular loop circuit should be replaced with more modern technologies.
Accordingly, the disclosed invention provides a system and method of estimating wideband performance characteristics of a telecommunications subscriber loop by identifying and inventorying broadband inhibitors that are present in the subscriber loop. The method begins by inventorying a client computer and associated components. Then, a voice band modem call from a modem associated with the client computer is placed to a remote access server (RAS) under the control of a server computer. Next, once the connection is established between the client computer and the RAS, the RAS extracts modem training and line probing signals received from the client computer modem. In addition, the client computer transmits its inventory of components to the RAS. The RAS""s server computer then analyzes the received signals and component inventory to identify and inventory potential wide band inhibitors that are present in the subscriber loop being analyzed.